Project: Progeny Stew

Summary: The Progeny Stew Stewardship Project is a joint effort between the Glendale and Butte Falls Resource Areas of the Medford District BLM. The project includes six Progeny Test Sites. Progeny Test Sites are part of the tree improvement activities that started in the 1960s for large scale operational breeding programs. The studies have been completed and the sites have been returned to general forest management with the limitation of maintaining the genetic families represented. The existing PTS sites proposed in this categorical exclusion are overstocked due to lack of stand maintenance such as pre-commercial thinning. Four of the PTS sites, totaling 54 acres, are located within the Middle Cow and West Fork Cow Creek watersheds on the Glendale Resource Area. Two PTS sites totaling 16 acres are located in the Evans Creek and Trail Creek watersheds in the Butte Falls Resource Area. Forest management activities include commercial thinning these young stands, pruning of lower live limbs up to 20' in height and big-game fence removal with its associated T-posts, wooden posts, and gates.